A Sovereign Debt

Chapter 3

The lock clicked at exactly seven in the morning. I did not move from the bed. I watched the door swing open. Silas stood there. He held a tray with black coffee and a single green apple. He placed it on the glass table near the window.

"Breakfast," he said.

"I want to see my father," I said. My voice was raspy from lack of sleep.

"Not today."

"The contract says I will save him. How do I know he is actually safe if I can't speak to him?"

Silas paused. He looked at me for a second longer than usual. "Mr. Knight does not lie about his transactions. Your father is at a private clinic. He is being treated for his heart condition."

"A clinic or a cage?"

Silas did not answer. He turned and left the door ajar. It was an invitation. Or a test.

I got out of bed. I didn't touch the food. I dressed in a simple grey sweater and leggings I found in the closet. I walked out of the room. The gallery was silent. The sun hit the glass walls and made the entire house feel like a diamond. It was blinding.

I walked toward the stairs. I expected a guard to stop me. No one appeared. I reached the main floor. The house felt empty. I could hear the distant sound of the ocean hitting the rocks below the cliff.

I moved toward the back of the house. I wanted to find the basement levels. Rule four was the only one that mattered to me. If Xavier told me not to go there, it was the only place worth seeing.

I found a door behind the kitchen. It was heavy steel. There was no thumbprint scanner here. Only a keypad. I stared at it. I tried my birthday. Nothing. I tried the date of the contract signing. Nothing.

"It is 0000, Lydia."

I jumped. Xavier was standing in the shadows of the pantry. He held a glass of water. He looked like he hadn't slept either. His white shirt was unbuttoned at the collar.

"You're giving me the code?" I asked.

"I'm giving you a choice," he said. He walked toward me. He stopped just inches away. I could smell cedar and cold air.

"Go down there. See what is behind the curtain. But once you know, you can never go back to being a victim."

"I am already a victim. You made sure of that."

Xavier leaned down. His face was level with mine. "No. You are a guest who thinks she is a prisoner. Go downstairs. See the truth of the Voss legacy."

He stepped aside. He didn't open the door for me. He waited.

I punched in the code. The steel door hissed and swung inward. A flight of concrete stairs led down into the dark. I looked at Xavier. He just nodded toward the stairs.

I went down. The air turned cold. The smell of the ocean was replaced by the scent of ozone and old paper. The lights flickered on as I reached the bottom.

It wasn't a dungeon. It was an archive.

Rows of tall metal filing cabinets lined the walls. In the center of the room was a long table covered in blue folders. I walked to the table. I opened the first one.

It was a property deed. My family’s summer home in Maine. I opened the next one. It was a list of my father’s offshore accounts.

The third folder made my blood run cold.

It was a surveillance log.

October 12th: Lydia leaves the university library at 9:00 PM. She stops for coffee. She is wearing a yellow scarf.

December 4th: Lydia attends the winter gala. She speaks to Marcus Thorne for twelve minutes. She looks unhappy.

I flipped through the pages. There were photos. Me at the park. Me at the grocery store. Me at my graduation. These weren't recent. Some went back five years.

"You've been following me," I whispered.

I didn't hear him come down the stairs. "I have been protecting an investment," Xavier said. He was standing by the door.

"I wasn't an investment five years ago. My father wasn't in debt then."

"Your father has been in debt to me for a decade, Lydia. He just didn't know the name of the man holding the notes. I bought his gambling debts in London. I bought his failed construction loans in Dubai. I waited until I owned every single breath he took."

I gripped the edge of the table. The room felt like it was spinning. "Why? Why do all of this for me?"

"Because your father stole something from my father.

Something that couldn't be repaid with money."

"What?"

Xavier walked over and closed the folder. "Time. He stole my father's reputation. He watched him jump from a ledge because of a lie. I decided then that I would take everything the Voss family loved. And they love you most of all."

I looked at the photos on the table. My entire life had been a staged play. My successes. My failures. Xavier had been the director.

"My mother knew," I said. It wasn't a question.

"Your mother is a practical woman. She saw the ship sinking.

She asked for a lifeboat. I gave her one. The price was you."

I felt a sharp, hot pain in my chest. It was the sound of my heart breaking for the last time. My mother hadn't just sold me to save the family. She had sold me to save herself from the man she knew was coming for them.

"You're a monster," I said.

"I am a man who settles his accounts," Xavier replied. He reached out. He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. His fingers were freezing. "Dinner tonight will be at eight. Wear the blue dress. It was always my favorite photo of you."

He turned and walked back up the stairs. The heavy steel door shut with a final, echoing thud.

I was alone in the dark. I looked at the surveillance logs. I saw a photo of myself laughing at a cafe three years ago. I looked so happy. I looked so free.

I realized then that the glass mansion wasn't my first prison. I had been living in one for years. Xavier had just finally moved me into the one with the better view.